7 Smart Ways to Use Channel Incentives in B2B Marketing

by:
Nichole GunnNovember 19, 2018

There are many ways to use channel incentives in B2B marketing. Especially if you want to build better relationships with your distributors, you can start with a good channel incentive company. When done right, channel incentives go hand-in-hand with your business goals and set you apart from your competition. Even more, channel incentives help you build brand loyalty with the customers who really matter.

Here are seven ways to use channel incentives in B2B marketing strategies.

1. Offer your B2B market collective loyalty rewards.

In The B2B Executive Playbook, author Sean Geehan talks about the importance of your market collective. Market collectives are defined as close-knit group of companies or customers with the most influence over your B2B sales. Every member of your market collective should be treated as a VIP channel customer. Why? Because if you're like most B2B companies, you can't afford to lose them.

The traditional ways of keeping your market collective engaged and loyal still work: sharing market insights, supporting their product knowledge, and more. But many companies, including your competitors, have adopted that route. To stand out from the crowd, add extraordinary loyalty rewards to the mix. B2B loyalty rewards sweeten the deal between you and your customers.

2. Create a customer loyalty program coalition.

There's a world of businesses out there selling products that supplement yours. Partner with them using a customer loyalty program. Doing so has many advantages:

You get to split the bill on program costs. Show affiliates what's in it for them, and they may be willing to pitch in on your loyalty program costs.

Your sweeten your program's value proposition. When it comes to loyalty programs, the more the merrier. Multiple program sponsors mean more opportunities to earn rewards, increasing the program's value.

You improve your customer retention rate. When you partner with companies who already offer value or convenience to your customers, you send the message that you care about making their lives a little easier. As value of your program increases, the more your participants trust and value it.

You boost customer acquisition. As your build your network of affiliates, you could acquire more business from your coalition’s customer base.

Co-marketing opportunities like coalition loyalty programs are a solid business move. Altogether, co-marketing a loyalty program solidifies your reputation with your marketbase and adds value for your customers. This earns trust and brand loyalty, which ultimately has a much bigger impact on your success.

3. Promote personal values with your brand values.

Your partners' and customers' values should align with your company's. A study found only 14% of B2B customers notice differences between their suppliers’ offerings. And then there's business values. In the same study, researcher uncovered a sobering truth - your partners and customers care very little about business values. In fact, 42% make business decisions based on personal values such as career advancement, social, emotional and self-image benefits. Only 21% say their decisions are based on business values like the functional benefits of your product.

How can channel incentives help you show your partners and customers your worth? One effective strategy is to promote your brand values in your customer loyalty program. But don't stop there. Let the type of incentive rewards you offer reflect your brand values, too. Here are a few examples:

Feature charities in your rewards catalog. For the do-gooders in your market collective, give them an opportunity to spend digital loyalty reward points on causes they care about.

Protect the environment by running sales promotions on energy-efficient products and services.

Address them directly. When you interact with participants, be sure to show that you’re all about them in your loyalty program. Doing so is much simpler than it seems. Just use “you” in the program marketing and communications as much as possible. For example: "Rewards for you", "You’ve almost reached your goal!", or "Here’s what you accomplished today."

If you're partners don't know what your values are, it's going to be difficult be of personal value to channel partners. A loyalty program is a great addition to your channel marketing strategy. With them, you can show them what your brand really stands for.

4. Travel together on group incentive trips.

What's one of the best ways to strengthen your relationship with B2B customers? An incentive trip! This is one most lucrative ways to use channel incentives in your B2B marketing strategy. Because out of all the incentive rewards customers can earn, incentive trips have the most lasting effect. Usually, incentive trips come in two forms: an event or meeting. Either way, you can host a summit in an exotic location exclusive for top partners or customers. During these incentive travel trips, you have the power to forge an experience that’s both fun and educational for everyone. In The B2B Executive Playbook, Sean Geehan recommends all B2B companies host summits with decision-makers in their sales channel:

The payback in terms of driving awareness, positioning the company, building trusting relationships, and boosting sales is substantial. When done correctly, summits deliver benefits for everyone who attends and transform target companies into prospects and prospects into customers.

An Aberdeen Research study backs up Geehan's theory. In their study, researchers at Aberdeen found that 100% of Best in Class companies offered group travel. Even more, 100% also offered company-sponsored events to recognize year-end sales success. As it would seem, Best in Class companies are revered as best in class for a simple reason - they engage their customers. Another study, this time by Oxford Economics USA, found that companies who offer incentive travel typically see a 4:1 return on investment, along with increased cash flow and profit.

5. Use incentive rewards to boost sales motivation and sell more high-margin products.

There are many ways channel incentives can help you increase revenue. And one of those ways is by offering incentive rewards to partners who add on or extend warranties and other similar products when with the end-customer. When you incentivize the process of registering and protecting products, you make supplemental services a norm part of the sale. This also helps your customer. If anything were to ever break or malfunction with their purchase, your brand is there for them.

7. Train channel sales reps on your products.

B2B markets are constantly changing. So it's critical to keep sales channel partners aware of new product knowledge, certifications, and safety policies. While it's essential to train channel partners, it's also important to train end-customers, too. The best way to ensure your end-customers are well-educated is to train channel sales reps. Keeping your channel partners and end-customers up-to-date on product knowledge has proven benefits. Namely, benefits in terms of repeat business increased brand loyalty and decreased business costs.

In fact, a recent Accenture survey, 92% of executives found that effective customer training won them repeat business.

If training is so important, how can you tie in training with channel incentives? Get an incentive program capable of digitizing the training process. Set up online quizzes, surveys and certifications all through your incentive program website, and offer participants reward points for their participation. Trading training for digital reward points motivates channel sales reps to keep learning. This way, they become the product experts you need to educate your end-customers.

Training incentives help you develop agile marketing strategies using their valuable insights and data. But incentive rewards aren’t the only way to draw more channel sales reps to educate themselves. You can also gamify information you want sales reps to learn using leaderboards and games of chance. This gives them a sense of triumph only winning can offer!

With these ways to use channel incentives in B2B marketing, you can engage your partners and end-customers. After all, when they are incented to learn more and do more with your products, you earn a strong differentiator that sets you apart from the competition.

Long gone are the days of trivial rewards that masqueraded as bonafide reward programs. Today's channel incentive programs combine creativity, strategic thinking, and cutting-edge channel incentive technology. You can create a powerful B2B sales and marketing tool that meets your unique business needs. Are there more ways to use channel incentives in B2B marketing? Let us know in the comments!

About
Nichole Gunn

Nichole Gunn is the Director of Marketing and Communications at Incentive Solutions, an Atlanta-based incentive company that delivers advanced, agile B2B customer loyalty and channel sales incentives programs.